Why we can't reach the speed of light?

jimmoore · Aug 29, 2001

Re: Why we can\'t reach the speed of light?

If you are traveling at the speed of light on your tractor and turn on the headlights, will they not illuminate?

jim

kubmech · Aug 29, 2001

Re: Why we can\'t reach the speed of light?

At that speed I'd have to say the quality of cut may be degraded somewhat. So, you may not want to turn on your headlights.

r0GuE · Aug 30, 2001

Re: Why we can\'t reach the speed of light?

Since I was traveling at the speed of light, it seemed like moments to me. Unfortunatly though, the conversation advanced rapidly during my trip!

Rogue

patrickg · Aug 30, 2001

Re: Why we can\'t reach the speed of light?

My problem is that I often travel faster than the speed of thought. As the speed of light varies depending on the density of the medium that it is in, so does thought.

Patrick

Bird · Aug 30, 2001

Re: Why we can\'t reach the speed of light?

Patrick, that's the first comment in this thread that I've understood; cause I have that problem myself./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

LazyK · Aug 30, 2001

Re: Why we can\'t reach the speed of light?

There goes my streamliner kit idea for my 4200 JD!

Lazy K - Chip

r0GuE · Aug 31, 2001

Re: Why we can\'t reach the speed of light?

more time to fully answer now-
Pardon me for any misunderstanding my response may have created; obfuscation was the farthest thing from my mind. While I must admit that I missed the previous response, I assume the reference is to Cerenkov radiation (Pavel A. Cerenkov--Nobel Prize winner in physics for the year 1958)? Actually, I was employing Feynman's philosophy whereby if an instructor cannot explain a subject at the level of freshman physics, the individual doesn't truly understand the subject. Therefore, while the short answer of Cerenkov radiation is correct, I felt that no further explanation would have been rather pretentious on my part since the average physics freshman would not have yet been exposed to the concept.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com

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As to having seen Cerenkov radiation, I would have to answer in the affirmative. When a high-energy gamma ray hits the atoms in our atmosphere, it creates pairs of electrons and positrons (or tractors and anti-tractors in keeping with the spirit of the forum). When these hit other atoms they in turn create more pairs of electrons and positrons (more tractors and anti-tractors), creating an electron (tractor) shower--known as Cerenkov radiation. We can therefore detect gamma ray bursts by looking for flashes of light in the night sky--excluding other phenomena, such as lightning and reflections of sunlight off orbiting tractors.

Rogue

Anonymous Poster · Sep 8, 2001

Re: Why we can\'t reach the speed of light?

I didn't read all the posts, so if someone else already said this, forgive me.

It is not only possible to exceed the speed of light, it could be done before the sun sets today. All that is required would be to post "c" as the speed limit on one of the interstate highways and someone would **have** to exceed it by 11 mph.

patrickg · Sep 8, 2001

Re: Why we can\'t reach the speed of light?

Gee, why didn't I think of that??????? Damn, that's good! I don't know about 11MPH but most folks routinely go at least 5 over thinking that is "built" in to the limit.

I think you should be immediately entered into the drawing as eligible to win a swell prize.

Patrick

glennmac · Sep 8, 2001

Re: Why we can\'t reach the speed of light?

I was watching a Nova special on PBS last night on Professor Kip Thorne's research about using wormholes as time machines.

They had segments showing experiments by Prof. Guenter Nimtz of the University of Cologne in Germany, who has transmitted microwaves at 4.7 times the speed of light using a phenomenon called superluminal quantum tunneling.

His apparatus splits a microwave beam. One half goes through the air to the receiver-timing device. The other half of the beam goes into an impermeable barrier, behind which is the receiver-timing device. Although classical physics says that the photon cannot penetrate the barrier, a few of them do by virtue of quantum tunneling. Quantum tunneling has been known for at least 50 years. What Nimtz did was measure the arrival speed of the tunneled photons. They beat the photons that traveled through the air. His calculations show that the tunneled photons acted as if there was no time involved in traversing the barrier.

Another group at Berkeley under Prof. Chaio has done similar experiments and gotten a speed of 1.7 times the speed of light for tunneled photons. Chaio argued that althought the photons exceeded the speed of light, Einstein's relativity theories were not violated because no "signal or information" exceeded the speed of light. Nimtz then transmitted a Mozart symphony via the tunneled photons and recorded it at the receiving end. He says: "Maybe Mozart's music is not considered a signal or information in the US, but it is in Germany."

Phyisicists are currently debating what all this means.

Here is a link to Nimtz's experiments:

http://www.compu-web.com/ftl.htm